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FORENSIC evidence played a crucial role in helping detectives unravel a nationwide conspiracy to commit armed robberies.

Detectives from the force’s Major Investigation Team launched an investigation following an armed robbery in North Tyneside on November 5.

As the investigation unfolded detectives suspected they were looking for a team from Merseyside led by two men - Kabba Kamara and Dennis Fontenot.

The investigation revealed the men belonged to a larger group of individuals from the Liverpool area, engaged in committing this type of offence.

Further enquiries linked the team to a number of robberies carried out between January 2005 and January 2010 across the North of England and Wales.

On September 20 three men were jailed for conspiracy to commit robbery and a fourth was jailed for a robbery in Merseyside.

The culprits

Dennis Elliott Fontenot, 37, of Waverley Road, Liverpool, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit robbery between January 2005 and 2010. He has been jailed for six years.

Kabba Kamara, 30, formerly of Smithdown Lane, Liverpool, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit robbery between January 2005 and 2010; and robbery and aggravated vehicle taking in Liverpool on January 19, 2010. Was given a 19 year extended sentence to include 14 years custody.

Paul Michael Jones, 35, of Dodridge Road Liverpool, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit robbery between January 2005 and 2010; and robbery and aggravated vehicle taking in Liverpool on January 19, 2010. Was given an 18 year extended sentence to include 12 years custody.

Barry Charles Dillon, 30, from the Liverpool area, pleaded guilty to robbery in Liverpool on January 19, 2010. He has been jailed for six years.

Monkseaton offence November 5, 2009.

At 11.44am on Thursday, November 5, two men armed with crowbars approached a security guard outside the Spar store on Front Street, Monkseaton while he was making a cash delivery, hit him over the head and stole cash cassettes containing a large amount of cash.

The security guard was knocked unconscious and suffered a gash to his head and was treated in North Tyneside District General Hospital.

The robbers escaped but officers quickly discovered the getaway car, a stolen burgundy Ford C-Max from the Liverpool area. Inside they discovered a drink bottle under the front passenger seat which yielded DNA identifying Kabba Kamara as the source.

Two days before the robbery, the men had used a Volvo to visit the cashpoint. Detectives identified the car and discovered fingerprints from both Kabba Kamara and Dennis Fontenot inside the car.